THE BLASPHEMY AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT (part 4)
In verses 22 & 23 of Matthew 7, the Lord Jesus issues a sombre warning that there will be many people who will call Him ‘Lord’ and claim that they did many signs and performed wondrous works, and even cast out demons, in His name. Jesus will respond by informing them that He does not know them nor has He ever known them, and that what they had in reality been performing were works of iniquity, which works He hates, and that they were to depart from Him. "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? And in Thy name have cast out devils? And in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I NEVER KNEW YOU: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity" (Matt. 7:22,23). These sobering verses are chilling to say the least. They teach us that there are people who are convinced they are Christians, and who even call Jesus ‘Lord’, who honestly believe that the ‘signs’ done by their hands are coming from God and that demons are departing the possessed at their command, and that they are filling the world with many such wonderful works. But Jesus’ words show clearly that these people are not, and never were, Christians, and therefore none of the signs they performed were of God: the healings were false; the wondrous works were false; and the demons were deceiving them by giving the impression that, by their commands, they were departing. How many ‘deliverance ministries’ today are deceived by the very demons they believe they are ‘casting out’? Importantly, these words of the Lord Jesus show that these people were never Christians. He does not say ‘I once knew you but no longer', but He states clearly that He NEVER knew them. We learn from this that these people were not backsliders, they were not people who were once strong for the Lord but had fallen away. They had never been His people for He said He never knew them. Most frightening of all for these people is the fact that their faith was a false faith and though they prayed and worshipped God, they did so in vain. Also made clear in this passage is the fact that these people had no inkling that they were anything but true Christians. They had no idea they had been deceived and would, in light of all they were doing ‘for the Lord’, have laughed at the suggestion. But from the Lord’s words we see that they were very much deceived, despite what they thought of themselves and how convinced they were in their hearts that they were Christians who were performing wonderful works and were busy with their various healing and deliverance ministries. Many people today believe they ‘know’ God, but the question is: DOES GOD KNOW YOU? Those in Matthew 7 had a zeal for God, but their zeal was not according to right knowledge of God, it was not according to the knowledge of the truth which all saved men have (see 1 Tim. 2:4), and they therefore had never acknowledged the true God. They were never of God to begin with. Their zeal was according to lies about God, thus making their worship of God a vain one founded upon ignorance. They did not have the true Gospel and therefore were not followers of God, nor obeyers of His truth and no instruments of His power, but were pretenders, and so were deserving of judgement. The Scriptures say that Christ will come with His mighty angels "...in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power" (2 Thess. 1:8,9). To know God is to obey the Gospel of God and to obey the Gospel of God one must know the Gospel of God and believe it is the only Gospel that saves.
We know, from what is recorded for us in the Bible, how God heals. Now if some pastor says to you, ‘Oh well that’s how it was in the days of the New Testament, but that’s not how it is today', please ask him, ‘Why?’ and, ‘Where is your proof?' How does he arrive at such a curious and convenient conclusion? Is it because, though convinced by the evidence he can see that the healings and so forth are different but because he is so convinced that those involved are all Christians it must be that God works differently in these last days? What sort of perverted reasoning is this? What kind of mind, after hearing a prophecy foretelling that an upcoming birth would produce a male child and upon seeing the child was female, would think that God must now be making males differently to how He used to? What absurd and nonsensical reasoning. But this is exactly the type of thinking that Charismatics have adopted, because they do not for one moment entertain the possibility that what they are involved in may well be a counterfeit! Because all involved are ‘Christian’ then all that is happening must be of God and if it is different to what occurred in the Bible it is no sign of a counterfeit only that God is doing things differently these days. For such people the Word of God is no authority but the standard is the very experiences they are enjoying. The apostle Paul did not say that if anyone claiming to be Christian came preaching a different gospel to his, it meant that God had changed and that people could now believe various, and even contradictory, gospels as well as the true one and still be saved! God’s Standard came first, and if the claims and teachings of a person did not fit with that Standard, then it was the person who was wrong and not God Who had changed!! Paul said that if anyone preached a different gospel to his, it was INCONTROVERTIBLE EVIDENCE that they and their message were not merely wrong but accursed. So, too, when any come with healings and prophecies different to those of Scripture, take it as sure evidence that they and their ‘miracles’ are NOT of God!! It's the differences that make all the difference and that which speaks volumes to the discerning mind. And what are we to do with the Charismatic cry that ‘God is the same yesterday, today and forever’, in light of the Charismatic’s insistence that God does do some things differently amongst them?? Where are the scriptures to prove that what the Charismatic pastor is saying is right? He will not provide you with any because there are none! No one today can answer these two simple questions. And sadly, many who cannot cope with the consequences of what I have just asked, retreat into the ‘safety’ of a sort of surreal world because they cannot comprehend how a man can speak reverently of God and yet not be of God, and how it is possible that they could have been so deceived for so long.
We beseech every Charismatic and Pentecostal to look carefully at what they are involved in and not to allow themselves to be fooled, by a veneer of Christian terminology and a superficial atmosphere wherein is lauded the name of Jesus but where the true Jesus is not present, into thinking, ‘What else could this be but Christianity?' Remember the people in Matthew 7:21-23. They, too, believed they were Christians, for they called Jesus ‘Lord’ and saw many wonderful works and wonders being performed at their command. What do you think is meant when the Bible warns that wolves would come dressed as sheep and would deceive many? It means that error and deception would not only be presented, but presented in such a way that the simple would perceive it to be truth in the last days and many would be deceived thereby (see 2 Thess. 2:9-12). The wolf could never catch as many sheep without looking like a sheep himself. If he did not look like a sheep, all the sheep would see him coming and have time to flee. But when the wolf is indiscernible from the sheep in appearance, pity the sheep that are within his grasp. These wolves would not be a scattered breed of renegades and their followers a mere few, they would be formed into large organizations bearing the name ‘Christian’ and made up of those who are actually on the broad way that leads to destruction, rather than among the few who walk through the Strait and Narrow Gate which leadeth unto life, for the Lord Jesus said that "MANY" would be deceived (Matt. 24:5), and that many (plenteous, abundant) people will consider themselves Christians and call Him ‘Lord’. The world is almost filled to the brim with false christian organizations, and counterfeit gospels that fail to present and identify the true Christ, which therefore do not, and cannot, save. Scripture says that no one seeks God! In a world that is overflowing with religion and religious fervor, not one person by nature is seeking the true God (see Romans 3). The Gospel is that which must be believed, for only by the Gospel does God reveal His Son. Only the Gospel reveals the truth about God and how He saves, for only the Gospel reveals all that was needed to be done in, and what was necessary for, the salvation of a man. Only the Gospel reveals the glorious righteousness of Christ, without which no man can possibly be saved regardless of what he has done, or not done, or what he has experienced. Only the Gospel of the doctrines of the grace of God leaves no room for a man to boast, but gives all the glory for salvation to God. Those who are deceived into accepting false signs and lying wonders have not the true Gospel and therefore cannot have the true God.
TONGUES - There are many who believe that tongues is still a gift available to Christians today. Much like circumcision in the Old Testament, some even believe that this is the sign that proves that one is a Christian, and that if one has not spoken in ‘tongues’ one is not truly born again. To such people, belief of the Gospel is not the key, instead a mindless chattering and babbling is the sign that one is saved and Spirit-filled. Needless to say, there are several scriptures conveniently overlooked in reaching and maintaining this wrong conclusion, which show clearly that today’s ‘tongues’ is a vastly different proposition to what we find in the pages of the Bible. The issue is not really whether tongues have ceased or not but whether that being practised in the Charismatic movement is the tongues of the Bible. Rather than enter into a lengthy discourse on whether tongues or any of the other gifts have ceased, all we need do is compare what is happening today with the true biblical gifts as appeared in the New Testament. We have just learned of the significant differences between the prophecies of the Bible and those rather limp ‘prophecies’ of today, as well as the unbiblical healings being performed in today’s Charismatic scene. Let us now turn to the ‘tongues’ of today and compare them with the biblical gift.
In simple terms, the modern-day ‘gift of tongues’ is nothing but babble. Nothing but a series of mindless and meaningless sounds and syllables repeated over and over, something that Jesus Christ strictly forbad the Christian to practice (see Matthew 6). The tongues of today are no different to the ecstatic speech practised centuries before the biblical tongues were given on the day of Pentecost, and to the tongues of many native tribes of America, Africa, Australia and other regions of the world. Today’s Charismatic tongues, which are accompanied by the same feelings and sensations and sound the same as any of the tongues of witches, satanists and pagan cults the world over, are also practised among cults such as the Roman Catholics, the Christadelphians, the Way International, the Mormons, and other such groups. People today are even taught how to speak in tongues. Various methods are employed to produce this counterfeit gift. One such method is having the one learning tongues to repeat over and over "La, la, la, la, la, la..." "Some have said that they first began to speak in tongues by making noises with their mouths. Surely this means that tongues is a man-created thing?"
Some actually claim to be speaking a foreign language when exercising their ‘gift’ of tongues, and yet they have no interpreter nor any proof that what they are speaking is a foreign human language, other than the speaker’s feeling or sensing it is a definite language or that it sounds like Arabic or Greek. Even if someone could produce verifiable evidence of a person actually speaking a foreign language they had never learned, what would it prove but that one person happened to speak in a tongue? This would be no evidence that such a person had the true God of the Gospel, because many such instances have occurred with people who do not even profess to be Christians. Even possessed people have been known to speak a tongue they have not learned! It would have no bearing whatsoever on the fact that the vast majority of people who speak a nonsensical gibberish they call tongues are not speaking any language known to man or angel.
There have been sporadic reports of people who have been heard to speak actual foreign languages during Charismatic services and prayer meetings, only to have someone who understood the language as Greek or Hebrew tell them that they were uttering the vilest of blasphemies against God. We have heard of one person frightened to the point of running out of a particular Charismatic meeting, horrified at hearing the person next to them speaking blasphemy in Greek whilst believing themselves to be speaking the glories of God via their use of the ‘gift of tongues’. How such a one could be led of the Holy Spirit, let alone be a Christian, is beyond me. How can Charismatics, who pride themselves on their ability to discern that which is of God and that which is not, be unable to discern blasphemy in their midst, and what’s worse, think that what they are hearing is Holy Spirit-inspired!! And how, for that matter, can those Charismatic leaders and pastors stand there listening to such horrors, not being able to discern that blasphemies are being uttered rather than things which glorify God? How many Charismatic pastors have said ‘praise God’ after a tongues-speaker has ended their blasphemous oratory? Can you imagine the apostle Paul being present amongst a group of people speaking in tongues and not discerning that a person was uttering blasphemies, and worse still, thinking their utterances were a direct communication from God?!? Moreover, can you imagine the apostle Paul being convinced the tongue speakers had received their ‘gift’ from God, when in actual fact they were speaking gibberish? And worse still, could you imagine God, Whom many charismatic pastors say speaks directly to them, remaining silent whilst all this was going on in His name? Of course not!
On one occasion, a man heard a woman chanting/singing the following words over and over, ‘Anathema Yesous Christou - Anathema Yesous Christou - Yesou Christou Anathema’ believing herself to be uttering a biblical language. The language was Greek, which the man was quite familiar with as he had taught it for 8 years. He promptly informed the woman that the words she was saying meant, ‘Cursed be Jesus Christ’. The woman, with prideful indignance, replied that no one speaking by the Spirit could say such a thing, and choosing to ignore the interpretation, merrily continued to sing those horrible words, which no true believer speaking by the Spirit of God could ever say (see 1Cor. 12:3). The woman was so convinced by her circular reasoning that what she spoke was a biblical language inspired by the Holy Spirit that she ignored the interpretation she received, which proved it was indeed a biblical language (Greek), but was not being inspired by the Spirit of God. No conviction can be a good thing when it blinds you to the truth. The woman was so convinced that she, and what she had, was of God, it blinded her even to the possibility that she could be deceived and that her ‘gift’ was a counterfeit. People caught up in experiences that they genuinely believe are from God, are often so hardened by those experiences that they are blinded to the truth, even when it is clearly presented to them.
One man shared with me the time when, at a Charismatic prayer meeting, a young lady speaking/praying in ‘tongues’ was actually saying the word ‘penis’ over and over in the Macedonian language, a language she had never learned. Many people have heard similar reports. On another occasion, in a Charismatic service, one person stood up and proceeded to ‘speak in tongues’. Once he’d concluded his oration, another promptly stood and gave the ‘interpretation’. One man who was present at that meeting was a missionary on furlough, who, after having received permission by the pastor to speak, informed the congregation that the interpretation was entirely wrong, and that he understood the language which was spoken and heard nothing but blasphemy issuing forth from the ‘tongues’ speaker. If that man had not been present at that meeting, everyone would have gone home believing the tongue came from God and that the interpretation was correct, never knowing the vileness of what had really been uttered. How often, we may well ask, has this occurred, and continues to occur, in Charismatic meetings? How often have they praised God for things that He has had nothing to do with?
"One who has had years of experience in the (Charismatic) movement in England, Scotland, France and Holland writes, ‘A regular tongues speaker in a church will, in a message in tongues, utter almost the same syllables week after week, only to have a different interpretation on each occasion’" (‘The Charismatics and the Word of God’, p. 67).
Charismatic tongues have been closely examined by linguistics experts on many occasions and their findings are as follows: "The conclusions of the linguists indicate that modern glossolalia is composed of unknown sounds with no distinguishing vocabulary and grammatical features, simulated foreign features, and the total absence of language characteristics" (‘The Modern Tongues Movement’, p. 67). Another writes, "It is significant to note that at least two competent linguists, after analysing taped samples of glossolalia, both came to identical conclusions: what they heard were not actual languages but types of ecstatic speech, with peculiar consonantal structure and very limited vowel sounds, which bore no resemblance to any language spoken on earth" (What About Tongue Speaking?’, p. 132). Of course, the Charismatic would say to this that it proves nothing but that the tongues they speak are not human languages at all but the language of angels, referring to 1 Corinthians 13:1 where Paul stated: "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal". In referring to the tongues of angels here, Paul is saying "Were I endowed with the faculty of eloquence and persuasion which we attribute to them; and the power of speaking to any of the human family with the power which they have. The language of angels here seems to be used to denote the highest power of using language, or of the most elevated faculty of eloquence and speech. It is evidently derived from the idea that the angels are superior, in all respects, to men; that they must have endowments in advance of all which man can have." Also, the apostle’s mention of the tongues of angels in no way suggests that the gift of tongues included men speaking with the language of angels. This is reading into the passage what is simply not there. Paul was making the point that if he could speak every human language, and even the language of angels, but did not have love, it would be of no profit at all.
One of the most significant points to be made about the biblical gift of tongues is that it was sent by God to be a sign to the unbelieving Jews (1Cor. 14:21,22 & Isa. 28:11). Conversely, today’s tongues are used as a sign for believers that they are born again. The biblical gift of languages was a judicial sign from God upon the children of Israel in response to their rejection of the Messiah and His Gospel. Many Charismatics today wrongly teach that the unbelievers which the Bible mentions tongues was a sign for, were those Christians who would not believe. But if one merely reads the chapter from which the verse originates, one will readily see that it was in fact a sign to the Jews and NO ONE ELSE!
A careful study of Scripture will also reveal that tongues were never used as a secret prayer language, or as a tool used in healing, or in the casting out of demons, as today’s ‘tongues’ are often utilised by those of the Charismatic movement. They were never used for self-edification but were for the edifying of the Church, as they were always and only to be spoken if there was an interpreter present (1Cor. 12;7; 14:28). The fatal error most Charismatics make when provided with such facts as I have mentioned is to reply with, ‘But... but... but...’, seeking to bring other scriptures into the conversation without properly dealing with the Scriptures that have just been shared with them. What they need to do is look at the scriptures that have just been given them, try and overcome those giant hurdles to a modern-day revival of biblical tongues, and then we can get to the other verses they are so keen to talk about. They never seem to give a direct answer to the scriptures that they are presented with, but always refer to those they are convinced proves them right, and dispute what is said to them with a convenient, ‘That’s just your interpretation'.
The Bible informs us that those who spoke in tongues spoke of the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11), which was similar to the language used in the Psalms. Significantly, the tongues (varieties of languages) of the Bible was a phenomenon which made communication possible, whereas the tongues of the Charismatic movement today make communication impossible! God is not the Author of confusion but of decency and order.
According to the Word of God, it was permissible for only two, or at the most three, people to speak in a tongue (language) at one time, "...and that by course...", meaning one at a time, and only if there was someone present to interpret, revealing that it was essential that an interpreter be sought before the tongues were allowed to be uttered in the assembly: "If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church..." (1Cor. 14:27,28). If no interpreter could be found, the tongue speaker was to remain silent in the church for no one would understand what he was saying. This also shows that biblical tongues was not something spontaneous over which the speaker had no control, but something which he could control and perform in an orderly manner and when the speaker was ready to speak (see 1 Cor. 14:32). In direct violation of these scriptural standards, today’s Charismatic churches are filled with the noise of the babble of most, if not all, worshippers speaking simultaneously and without any interpretation whatsoever! The Bible knows nothing of the like. At other times, a person stands and ‘speaks in tongues’ and then the congregation is directed by the ‘pastor’ to remain silent as they wait in hope of an interpretation. Often there is no interpretation given, which is exactly the opposite of what Scripture directs should be the case. The Bibles’ tongues speaker was to search for an interpreter BEFORE he spoke, but the charismatic ‘tongues speaker’ speaks and then hopes an interpreter is present! Its all backwards. So we have the situation where a person has wasted 5-10 minutes of the people’s time by uttering things no one has been able to understand. No one is edified and no one profits, which defeats the whole purpose and makes a mockery of the biblical gift of tongues – that of edifying the church. To add to this unbiblical scenario, many in the Charismatic movement sing in tongues, something that is also completely foreign to the Scriptures.
Today’s ‘tongues’ is everything the biblical gift of tongues was not, and it is practised in a most unbiblical manner. The Bible says that God is NOT the author of confusion. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that Charismatic missionaries have to attend a school where they must learn the language of the mission field they are to minister at. Most of these missionaries claim to have the gift of tongues, but isn’t it strange that never once is it a language with which they can speak to the foreign tribe they have been sent to?
There are many books and audio tapes available through this author that will help people understand the many differences between Bible tongues and the babble that has bewitched many today. Some of these are by former Charismatic ministers who were involved in the Charismatic movement for a number of years. In this brief comparison between biblical prophecy, healings and tongues, and what masquerades today as the same, we can see that there are huge and undeniable differences. Sadly, there is much misuse and abuse of the Scriptures too. Many scriptures have been twisted in such a way as to support the Charismatic version of these practices with all their deficiencies, whilst others are conveniently ignored. And all too many people not biblically sound in the knowledge of the Bible fall for it, hook line and sinker.
No, my friends, this author has not committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit by saying that the Charismatic movement and her practices are not of God, for that is not what the blasphemy is. The Charismatic movement has never proven that its practices and ‘gifts’ are in fact of God. Simply saying, ‘Hear what I say and look at what I do’ is no evidence that what you believe is the truth. All we have done in this book is explain what the blasphemy is and what it is not. Also, we have rightly examined the fruit of those who claim ownership of God and His miracles and who, curiously, are all too quick to denounce any examination or inquiry as devilish. In truth there is freedom — in error there is fear.
The Charismatic is reminded of one very important and overlooked fact. It is just as much a blasphemy of God to say that something is of God when it is not, as it is to say that something is not of God when in fact it is. Paul spoke about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 and said that if Christ has not indeed been raised, he, and those with him, would be found to be false witnesses of God (see 1 Cor. 15:12-15). The Charismatic prophet claims his words are from God. But how could error and inaccuracy come from the mouth of one who claims to be speaking the words of God? This is blasphemy. The Charismatic healer claims his healings—when they do come—are of God. But how, we ask, could hit-and-miss healings come from the Hand of Almighty God? This, too, is blasphemy. And the Charismatic ‘tongues speaker’, rather than speak a language that is interpretable, speaks a gibberish that has no meaning to it at all. None of these Charismatic signs and wonders are of God and it is blasphemy for anyone to say that they are.
One Scripture which is heavily but incorrectly relied upon to assure the Charismatic that he cannot be deceived in anything, is Matthew 24:24: "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect". The verse does not mean that true Christians (the elect) cannot be deceived, but that they cannot be deceived to the point where they would abandon the Saviour and the Gospel which reveals Him. Charismatics are automatically ruled out as being the elect ones Christ spoke of, for all of God’s elect believe in the same Gospel, which is not the gospel preached in Charismatic churches.
Some will concede, ‘O.K., so there are some prophecies in the Charismatic movement that don’t come true. There are some healings which don’t take place. But that doesn’t mean we should drop the whole Charismatic movement and say it’s not of God!’ My friend, THAT is the very evidence that proves the Charismatic movement is not of God, and this is precisely why you should abandon the Charismatic movement in its entirety. Their claims are that God gives the words, God does the healing. Well, why aren’t they the same as they appeared in the Bible? The whole movement is founded, grounded, and based on, the alleged revival of the BIBLICAL gifts. Well then, why aren’t the gifts we are seeing today BIBLICAL??????? If these experiences and ‘gifts’ are different from those found in the trusted Word of God, then it is incumbent upon every Charismatic out there to show that this is what the Scriptures teach; that the gifts in the last days would differ to how they were manifested in the Bible. But they will find that nowhere does the word of God foretell of biblical signs and gifts being different in the last days. The only signs it speaks of are counterfeit signs! So in light of this, we must ask ourselves what it is that is loose in Charismatic churches today; what it is that is running amuck and deceiving so many people today. IT IS A COUNTERFEIT SPIRIT!! For if the gifts are counterfeit; if the signs are counterfeit; and if the gospel is a counterfeit, then it must be a counterfeit spirit at work. Scripture teaches that if any came preaching anything different to what it teaches, it is a sure sign that a spirit of falsehood is behind the phenomena and not the Spirit of God. Scripture does not merely have a standard, SCRIPTURE IS THE STANDARD, and if anything does not match with what it says, then it is the sure-fire evidence that it is not of God. Look at the detail dear Charismatic person, for the Devil is often found in the detail! You’ll never discover the counterfeit by its general appearance, but you will always discover its true value, or should I say lack of value, in its detail!!!
No sane person would accept a counterfeit $50 note simply because it was very similar, even bearing a striking resemblance, to the genuine. If it is not genuine, no matter how close to the real thing it appears to be, the sane man would have no hesitation in rejecting it out of hand, indeed would have no reason to hesitate. Only the person who has discerned the $50 note to be a counterfeit knows that it is of no value whatsoever. But to the untrained eye, to the eye that knows not what to look for, the note looks as good as any other and could be nothing but what it appears to be. All counterfeits, though having the look and feel of the genuine, are absolutely worthless. Only the unwary believe it to be of any value at all. We believe that we have sufficiently highlighted substantial differences between the false gifts of the Charismatic movement and the genuine gifts of the Bible to render the Charismatic movement a counterfeit movement that is not of God. This is not an attack upon the people who attend those churches. It is an exposé of a system and its false and blasphemous claims, and is a warning to those people to get out of the Charismatic movement, repent of its gospel and signs as being of God and believe the only Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. Even after having made this clear, I know there will be many Charismatics who will only see this book as a personal attack on them, and I know there is nothing I can say to those people that would convince them otherwise. There is nothing I can do for these people but say what I have said and pray.
Many will stand aghast and respond to our plea for Charismatics to abandon the Charismatic movement in its entirety by saying, ‘Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water'. My friends, it is not a baby in the bath water, but a life-like doll that has no true life in it! It may have the appearance and the feel of a baby, it may even make the same sounds as a baby, but it is a worthless plastic imitation! You say, ‘You speak rather boldly’. I say: IT'S TIME TO BE BOLD!! Its time to have courage enough to call a spade a spade, in love, that those who are in error might at least have the chance to hear the truth, to hear the warning trumpet, to hear the TRUE Gospel and know the TRUE God. It’s time to speak frankly and defend the Word of God and His true works with forthrightness and clarity, for anything that comes in Jesus’ name and is in fact not of Him, must be exposed for what it is and be avoided at all costs.
Others will say, ‘But how could so many people be so wrong? Do you mean to tell me that millions of people are deceived when it comes to the claims of the Charismatic movement?' YES!! That is exactly what we are saying. We do not denounce or put down these people, and we rebuke anyone who does so. We merely sound the alarm bells in the hope that some might be alerted to the dangerous practices and false gospel they are involved with and flee. Look how many Mormons there are, how many Muslims and how many Roman Catholics. The total would be well over two billion! At least two billion deceived people on the broad way that leads to hell, and most, if not all, are sincere in their beliefs. How shocked they will be when they arrive in hell and realise they had all the while been deceived. That no matter how many their experiences, or how wonderful they were made to feel or how sincere they had been in their religious lives, they never had the true God and therefore were never saved. You see, sincerity proves nothing, yet many use it as a type of security blanket little realising that the blanket will one day become their grave cloth. People see an attempt to expose error in their lives as some sort of attack upon their sincerity and honest convictions. No one is doubting how sincere Charismatics are or how honestly they are convinced about what they believe. All we are doing is exposing the lies taught by this movement and the false signs and lying wonders it uses to get its lies accepted. He whose trust and faith is not of God, is not in God. Those who do not trust in the true God are in fact trusting in their own hearts. They believe with a faith that is not of God but is natural to man, hence his attraction to a counterfeit christianity rather than to the truth (see 2 Thess. 2:10-12). The Bible says that the human heart is "...deceitful above all things and desperately wicked..." (Jer. 17:9), and "He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool..." (Prov. 28:26).
Many would respond to this by saying, ‘But how could I be deceived; I claim the name of Jesus; I call Him Lord? I love Him with all my heart’. Again, sincerity is not security and conviction without truth is the heart and soul of the deceived state. Sincerity in what you believe is no guarantee that what you believe is the truth. How many people do you know who sincerely believe in something they know to be wrong? I don’t know of any and neither do you. Everyone believes that what they believe is right, and in the religious realm everyone believes what they believe to be the truth. ‘Everyone believes they are saved, before they are saved, until they are saved.’ Many warn of a false jesus, but no one believes that the jesus they believe in is a false one. No one is doubting that you love the one you have been taught is Jesus the Lord. What we are saying is you have been taught another jesus that is not the Savior of His people. Matthew 7 is where the Lord Jesus tells us that many who not only claimed to love Him but actually did works in His name and called Him Lord, will be told that He does not know them, in fact He never knew them for they had fallen for another jesus. Their names are not registered in the Lamb’s Book of Life, they never have been. He then commands them to depart from Him. Who are these people? Think well my friend of what you believe and what you are involved in. Many might say, ‘Yes, but they couldn’t possibly have been Christians'. That’s right, but they were convinced they were! They were convinced that what they were doing was of God and that they had Paradise awaiting them. But they were dead wrong!! They were wrong about their being Christians, they were wrong about their works being of God, and they were wrong about the one they called ‘Lord’!! Simply because a person is convinced they are Christian is no evidence that they are, it merely tells us that they believe they are. Conviction without truth, just as zeal without true knowledge, is the state of the ignorant. Simply because you believe you love the Lord Jesus Christ is no evidence that the jesus you love is the true Jesus. These are concepts and possibilities that never enter the minds of those who have no time or desire to judge, question, and examine themselves to see whether they are in THE Faith. What a person believes will show whether or not they are Christian, for the gospel or Gospel they believe identifies the one they believe in. False gospels can only identify and promote false christs. Only the true Gospel rightly identifies and distinguishes the true Christ from the false, for only God’s Gospel contains God’s Testimony of Who His Son is and what His Son has done to save the people He did it for from their sins.